Some 129 of the 191 students who were stranded in Sudan because of the coronavirus will jet into the country today at 4 pm.
This is after politicians in Mombasa intervened to have the students fly back home.
Muslims for Human Rights, who are coordinating the logistics, said the rest will be on their way home after the money being contributed is enough for their airfares.
“We are still reaching out to politicians in the regions where the students come from for help,” said Muhuri evaluation, monitoring and communication officer Ernest Cornel.
Kenya Airways is charging the students USD490 (about Sh51,900) per person.
Cornel said the students contacted Muhuri chairman Khelef Khalifa for help and they, in turn, reached out to their parents, local leaders and politicians to raise the fares.
Parents of 76 of the students raised half the fare each.
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho paid the full fare for 25 of the students.
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir paid full airfare for 19 students.
Mombasa politician Suleiman Shahbal paid half the airfare for 37 of the students.
Lamu East MP Athman Shariff paid full fare for 20 students.
Joho also paid 50 per cent of the airfare for 68 students, Shahbal 50 per cent for 20 students and Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa 50 per cent for for four students.
The politicians paid directly to the airline.
The stranded students are from Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Isiolo, Mandera, Garissa, Lamu and Nairobi counties, among others.
“Fourty of those who will jet in today are from Nairobi,” said Cornel.
Muhuri has hired two buses that will transport the students from the Moi International Airport in Mombasa to a quarantine facility that was yet to be identified by Saturday morning.
MP Nassir has talked to Kemri Kilifi to fast track the testing of the students’ samples so as to have the results come back quick.
“Those who are negative will be released to go home for self-isolation,” said Cornel.
Muhuri is working to get special passes for the students so they can travel to Nairobi and the other parts of the country.
This comes as some other 200 Kenyans who were stuck in Dubai because of the virus are also set to jet into the country today evening.
The 200, 70 of whom are from Mombasa, paid USD 390 each (about Sh41,300) for the Kenya Airways tickets.
“They also reached out to Muhuri through our chair Khelef Khalifa after they heard about the seven Kenyans we helped come back home from Somalia where they were stranded for about 90 days,” Cornel said.
The seven Kenyans have since been re-united with their families.
Nassir, Shahbal and Joho are expected at the airport to receive the Kenyan students from Sudan.
They were all at studying various courses, mostly medical courses, at the University of Khatoum.
